LOGINWe took Elaine Roswell three days later, not through violence but through careful legal maneuvering that Morrison arranged with federal cooperation, a warrant built on the evidence from her storage unit that gave us grounds to detain her without alerting anyone connected to the conspiracy that supernatural forces had been involved.She sat across from me now in a secure federal facility, composed despite the circumstances, her expression carefully neutral in a way that reminded me uncomfortably of Callahan's calm acceptance weeks earlier."Luna Hailey," she said, before I'd spoken a word. "I wondered when you'd find your way to me eventually.""You wondered, and you kept operating anyway," I said, sitting across from her at the interrogation table. "Kept selecting children for termination or transfer, kept filing careful reports for someone you call the Fifth. Why?""Belief," Elaine said simply. "The same belief that motivates everyone in this organization. Integration is a lie that w
We drove back to the pack house in silence, the storage unit's contents secured in evidence bags and Morrison's careful hands, my thoughts circling the words I'd read until they felt burned into memory. Recommend transfer to Primary Site for direct evaluation by the Fifth."She had direct written contact with the fifth conspirator," I said finally, breaking the silence somewhere past midnight, the highway empty around us. "Not the Steward. Not an intermediary. Direct correspondence about my daughter, about whether she lived or died, filed away in a storage unit like paperwork.""It confirms Elaine Roswell isn't just connected to this," Lucian said from the driver's seat. "She has direct standing with whoever runs the entire operation. That makes her more valuable than anyone we've captured so far.""And more dangerous to approach carelessly," I said. "If we move on her the way we moved on Kessler, and she has any way to alert the fifth conspirator that we're closing in, we could lose
Morrison's team spent three days building a full profile on Elaine Roswell before I allowed anyone near her directly. The picture that emerged was unsettling precisely because of how legitimate it appeared on the surface."She's been running Bridgeway for six years," Morrison said, spreading photographs and documents across our command table. "Genuinely well-regarded in the supernatural welfare community. Testified before Congress twice about integration support services. On paper, she's exactly who the letter you found should never point toward.""And beneath the paper?" Lucian asked."Beneath the paper, there's a pattern," Morrison said. "Every child who's passed through her foundation gets a case file. Standard practice for any placement organization. But cross-referencing those case files against the ledger from the farmhouse, six names match exactly. Six children who went through Bridgeway's system and later appeared in the conspiracy's tracking documents.""Six," I repeated. "Ou
"Her name was Priya Nasser," Morrison said, sliding a photograph across the table toward me. "Age seven. Taken eleven months ago from a supermarket parking lot in Colorado. Her file in the ledger ends with the transfer code, not the termination one. That means there's a chance she's still alive somewhere."I studied the photograph, a small girl with dark curls and a gap-toothed smile, captured in some ordinary moment before her world had been torn apart the way Hope's had been."Her parents?" I asked."Still searching," Morrison said. "Still holding vigils every month on the anniversary of her disappearance. Her mother's given interviews to local news for almost a year now, begging for any information.""Then we give her something," I said.Lucian looked up from where he'd been reviewing another section of the file. "Are you certain? We don't know if Priya's alive. We don't know where the Primary Site is. Telling her mother what we've found might only confirm her worst fear without gi
Morrison found us an hour later, his face pale in the dim farmhouse lighting, a printed stack of papers clutched in one hand."You need to see this," he said. "All of you."We gathered in the kitchen, Hope asleep now in Lucian's arms, exhausted past the point of fighting sleep despite everything. Edward stood near the door, arms crossed, and Margaret had arrived twenty minutes earlier with a medical team to check Hope over, though she hovered near the conversation instead of tending to her equipment."The files were a tracking database," Morrison said, spreading the papers across the table. "Every child who passed through this facility, cross-referenced with a code system. I managed to partially decrypt what the codes mean.""Tell us," I said."They're testing something," Morrison said. "Some kind of genetic marker related to mixed heritage. Children of supernatural and human parentage, specifically. The codes track physical changes, shift capability, something they're calling 'integr
We assembled everyone who could move within twenty minutes: Edward, still tight-lipped from our earlier confrontation but present nonetheless, Morrison and four federal agents, eight remaining warriors from the original fifteen. Twelve of us total, driving through the dark toward a farmhouse that might hold my daughter, or might hold nothing at all."You're limping," Edward observed from the passenger seat, glancing at the way I held my injured wrist against my chest."It'll hold," I said."That's not what I asked.""I know what you asked," I said. "I don't have time to answer it properly right now."He was quiet for a moment, watching the dark fields pass outside the window. "Earlier," he said finally, "when you looked at that list. When you saw my name on it.""Edward,""Let me finish." His voice was steady, but I could hear the effort it took to keep it that way. "I understand why you looked at me the way you did. I understand the pattern. Petra, Margaret's stolen medication, me fa
Hailey"Push! One more push!"Margaret's voice cut through my screams. I'd been in labor for twelve hours. Twelve hours of pain beyond anything I'd experienced."I can't. I can't do it.""You can," Lucian said, holding my hand. He'd been beside me the entire time, never leaving even when I'd cursed
Lucian's POV)"This is madness!"Alpha Vincent slammed his fist on the table. He led the Northern Ridge Pack, one of the largest in the country. "You're asking us to surrender our sovereignty. To bow to human authority. I won't do it.""No one's asking you to bow," I said calmly. "We're asking you
Hailey"Next!"I sat at a folding table in the pack house, watching as government officials processed pack members for registration. One by one, my wolves submitted fingerprints, photographs, and DNA samples.It felt wrong. Invasive. But it was happening whether I liked it or not."This is humiliat
I opened my eyes to find myself standing in my old bedroom. The one I'd shared with Jude. Everything was exactly as I remembered. The blue curtains. The photos on the dresser. The bed where I'd found him with Lucy."No," I whispered. "This isn't real.""Isn't it?"I spun around. Helena Blackwood st







